{"id":294,"date":"2017-01-14T09:39:26","date_gmt":"2017-01-14T16:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/?p=294"},"modified":"2025-12-11T22:28:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T05:28:24","slug":"new-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2017\/01\/14\/new-year\/","title":{"rendered":"New Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

The very first lettering I posted on my musings blog last year was this one: <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I lettered it on January 5, 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was actually the quote that inspired me to start practicing my lettering. I had found the quote in the late fall of 2015, and I could see the door opening with hope shining through. After some thought I decided that perhaps it would be a good start to practice hand lettering, so in early January last year I sat down with pen and paper and illustrated and lettered the quote.<\/p>\n

It came out just how I\u2019d imagined it and I was so pleased to have been able to capture on paper what my mind\u2019s eye had seen\u2026 I also thought it was the perfect sentiment to start out the new year. The quote really, really resonated with me… I believed that after what had happened in 2014 and 2015, the new year of 2016 *had* to be a happier year. It had to be.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t. 2016 was pretty miserable for me.<\/p>\n

I think about that quote now and how much I believed it a year ago, and I kind of feel like a fool. Looking at this illustration that I once loved actually makes me cringe now. It\u2019s sad. But really, just because I\u2019m hoping life will be better doesn\u2019t mean it will be. Turns out that when you think things can\u2019t possibly get worse, sometimes they do…<\/p>\n

And I know things can always get even worse, but I\u2019m not trying to get philosophical or competitive. The facts are that 2016 sucked for us. It doesn\u2019t matter to me what else could have gone wrong too, because in the end, it was not a great year for us. It was full of loss, grief, disappointment, bad news, and tears. Full of procedures, needles, and waiting, waiting, waiting. Last year was full of writing and reading about infertility, and trying (and often failing) to communicate to my loved ones about the extent of my heartache.<\/p>\n

And on top of my personal struggles, I feel like our world in general had a bad year. I feel like our nation is crumbling\u2026 it feels divided and full of hate. I fear for our future. And the international community is struggling too, with wars and terrorism, refugees and immigration\u2026 Every time I turned around in 2016, I felt like there was another horrible thing happening somewhere, either in the US or abroad. 2016 was a tough year for us and, I think, for the world at large too.<\/p>\n

And yet, despite all of our loss and heartache, our disappointments and fears, I have a full journal with an entry every day since February 10th of things that I am thankful for.<\/p>\n

Life is funny like that sometimes… It may have been a really bad year for us, but because of my gratitude journaling, it\u2019s also probably the year I\u2019m most aware of the things for which I\u2019m grateful. Practicing gratitude certainly doesn\u2019t negate or remove the bad things; it doesn\u2019t fix anything that\u2019s going wrong; it doesn\u2019t fulfill wishes and dreams… but it does remind me that not everything is horrible; it has helped me to be more aware of things that are good in my life; it has helped me to find some balance in this miserable time.<\/p>\n

So while I do hope that 2017 will be better, I\u2019m not necessarily counting on it. 2016 reminded me that sometimes things don\u2019t get better. I have no idea what\u2019s going to happen this year… and I\u2019m trying to be realistic. At this point, we\u2019re still trekking through a lot of misery, and we can\u2019t see the way out yet — we don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going. <\/span><\/p>\n

What I can count on in 2017 is knowing that we have the ability to survive our grief, and the ability to continue finding and creating peace and joy. As we move into this new year we will hang on to a bit of hope that things will in fact get better; we will to continue to look for the light; and we will continue to pay attention to the bits of joy and peace that are present in our lives. In this new year, in whatever comes our way, we will continue to look for the good.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The very first lettering I posted on my musings blog last year was this one: I lettered it on January 5, 2016. It was actually the quote that inspired me to start practicing my lettering. I had found the quote in the late fall of 2015, and I could see the door opening with hope […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[34,42,53,22],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections","tag-gratitude","tag-holidays","tag-new-year","tag-waiting"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7UmuL-4K","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":111,"url":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2016\/10\/04\/reminders-of-hope\/","url_meta":{"origin":294,"position":0},"title":"Reminders of Hope","author":"Jenna","date":"October 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"According to Emily Dickenson, Hope is the thing with feathers - That perches in the soul - And sings the tune without the words - And never stops - at all - (Click here for the full poem.) I think the thought of this is lovely. So lovely that I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coping"","block_context":{"text":"Coping","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/category\/coping\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mjblythe.com\/beautiful\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/2016_08_21_TheThingWithFeathers.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":282,"url":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2016\/12\/05\/creativity\/","url_meta":{"origin":294,"position":1},"title":"Creativity","author":"Jenna","date":"December 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"At the beginning of this year I decided that I would work on my hand lettering skills\u2026 I intended to pick a theme for each month, then letter and illustrate quotes in that theme, and post them on my other blog. 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When possible\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reflections"","block_context":{"text":"Reflections","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/category\/reflections\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":193,"url":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2016\/10\/18\/strength\/","url_meta":{"origin":294,"position":3},"title":"Strength","author":"Jenna","date":"October 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We\u2019ve probably all been told at some point, \u201cWhat doesn\u2019t kill you makes you stronger.\u201d And we\u2019ve seen the motivational posters. We\u2019ve maybe even said it to someone else or told it to ourselves. It seems like such a nice encouragement, and I\u2019ve heard variations of it a number of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reflections"","block_context":{"text":"Reflections","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/category\/reflections\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"strength","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/strength-300x300.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":370,"url":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2017\/03\/24\/surreal\/","url_meta":{"origin":294,"position":4},"title":"Surreal","author":"Jenna","date":"March 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"A friend recently gave me something that reads, \u201cIf by dream, you mean nightmare, then yes, I\u2019m living the dream.\u201d We had a good laugh over this and I put it where I can see it every day and have a chuckle. It\u2019s good for me to find humor where\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reflections"","block_context":{"text":"Reflections","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/category\/reflections\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/infertility_is_surreal-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":51,"url":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/2016\/09\/20\/recommended-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":294,"position":5},"title":"Recommended Reading","author":"Jenna","date":"September 20, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"If it\u2019s not obvious by now, I like to write. When I was little I would make books at home\u2026 I\u2019d cut the paper, staple the book together, and fill in the pages with words and pictures, and an adult would have to translate my sloppy words and letters into\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Resources"","block_context":{"text":"Resources","link":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/category\/resources\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":299,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.iamhalfhope.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}